


The Same Damn Hunger

by melonprins



Series: like jagged pieces in a fucked up jigsaw puzzle [2]
Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Character Study, Cheating, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Cheating, One Night Stands, Platonic Cuddling, they kiss but they dont actually have sex, this really isn't romantic its just them finding familiarity and comfort in each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 08:01:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12186084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonprins/pseuds/melonprins
Summary: They stay like that, just sitting in silence, staring at each other over the rims of their glasses. Mary’s lips curl, a small wry smile settling on her lips. It feels genuine. Robert’s eyes glint and he ducks his head, just a little. His cheeks are flushed from the alcohol and he sways when he stands. Mary hides her widening smile behind her empty glass.”Want to get out of here?” Robert asks, and Mary drums her fingers against her glass, tilts her head in contemplation. She looks him up and down, and puts her glass on the table.–Mary and Robert find comfort in each other and their experiences.





	The Same Damn Hunger

**Author's Note:**

> ya boi is back at it again, being emo about mary and robert
> 
> title is from _strangers_ by halsey

Leaving the two of them to drink alone is a mistake.

Mary has already had too much, and apparently, so has he. _Robert Small_. His voice is husky, lips spilling words of mystery and self deprecation in between sips of his whiskey. She laughs, idly wonders how long ago it is she has laughed for real. Robert talks in intricate patterns, she notices, with jerky twists and turns, each scenario more unexpected, more bizarre than the next.

Twenty minutes into her countless glasses of wine, Mary realizes she’s having fun. It makes her still – for just a second – makes her study Robert’s face, eyes roving over the fuzzy details her drunken mind can comprehend. Robert stills too, stares back. He looks nervous, but not like the silence bothers him. Silence looks good on him, fits him even.

They stay like that, just sitting in silence, staring at each other over the rims of their glasses. Mary’s lips curl, a small wry smile settling on her lips. It feels genuine. Robert’s eyes glint and he ducks his head, just a little. His cheeks are flushed from the alcohol and he sways when he stands. Mary hides her widening smile behind her empty glass.

”Want to get out of here?” Robert asks, and Mary drums her fingers against her glass, tilts her head in contemplation. She looks him up and down, and puts her glass on the table.

Mary sways, too, when she gets to her feet. She doesn’t know who reaches out first, but they’re holding on to each other, steadying hands, easy. Mary grabs Robert’s shoulder and his hand settles on her lower back, an illusion of stability. They’re barely staying upright. But this, holding onto Robert, touching Robert, is easier than anything has been in a while. Mary smiles, feels the skin around her eyes crease and the smile Robert gives her is tentative, but it’s so genuine. She links their arms together and Robert laughs, and together, arm in arm, they make their way out of _Jim & Kim’s_ unsteadily, both with lighter chests.

It’s still dark outside, but Mary knows the sun isn’t far out from rising. They stumble down the sidewalk and she doesn’t know where they’re going, and it doesn’t feel like Robert knows either. Mary realizes she doesn’t care. She’s content with the easy laughter bubbling out of her, how her chest feels tingly, warm. Mary hasn’t felt like this in so long.

The light from the streetlights cast shadows over Robert’s face, dipping into the bruises under his eyes, makes everything sharper. It’s supposed to make everything sharper. Mary finds herself marveling at how soft his eyes are, how she wants to cup his face in her hands and stroke the skin under them. Maybe it’s the wine, but maybe, just maybe she wants to see for herself if Robert’s lips are as soft as they look.

Robert stops suddenly, or maybe not suddenly, Mary thinks, realizes she’s zoned out during their walk. Robert looks down at her and Mary knows she’s staring. She doesn’t apologize. Her lips quirk up, and Robert mirrors it, before he gestures unsteadily with his other arm, the arm not linked with her’s.

Mary looks up at the house they’ve stopped at, and she recognizes the neighborhood. It’s her’s, after all. But it’s also Robert’s. She knows, if she turns, she’ll see her house, her front lawn, see into the backyard where Joseph hosts his fucking barbecue dinners, like everything’s alright, like nothing’s broken beyond repair. Mary doesn’t turn around, just looks at Robert again.

He opens his mouth, but he doesn’t say anything yet. She waits. Robert licks his lips and she can see the cogs in his head turning. She waits.

”D'you want to come in?” Robert asks, and it sounds weird on his lips, hesitant, like he’s unused to saying it like that. Mary doesn’t dwell on the feelings pushing at her throat, only nods, bumps their shoulders together and lets Robert lead her in. 

She ends up with her back against the door, and finds out Robert’s lips are just as soft as they look. His hands, wide and calloused, wrap around her waist, holds her up more steadily than she has been all night. Mary snakes her arms around Robert’s shoulders and digs a hand into his hair. Robert hoists her up, presses the length of his body against her, and she doesn’t mind this, she doesn’t mind at all. But something feels… Not right. Mary realizes just how tired she is. Robert seems to realize this too.

Their kisses take a slower turn, until it’s just a soft press of their lips. Robert’s hands are gentle where they encircle her waist and Mary pulls away. Her head thumps back against the door and Robert follows, resting his forehead against her shoulder. His arms tighten around her waist, and she trails her fingers down his neck and back into his hair, a slow back and forth. They stay, silence settling around them, less like a heavy weight and more like a familiar thick blanket. Mary pretends not to notice when Robert’s shoulders start to shake, pretends like her eyes aren’t watering.

Somehow they end up on Robert’s bed, curled around dirty sheets, pillows and each other. Robert’s apartment is dirty; empty bottles littering most surfaces, pizza boxes left on the coffee table, laundry strewn over the floor. Mary knows the numb feeling this is the result of intimately. She scoots closer to Robert’s warm body, buries her face in his hair.

They’d stripped out of most of their clothes, leaving Robert in his underwear and Mary in his shirt. Robert is asleep against her now, face resting in her neck. She focuses on the slow, steady puffs of breath coming from his parted lips.

Mary doesn’t sleep well anymore. She doesn’t think Robert does either, but he’s pliant in her arms and her heart throbs at how soft his face looks, how the deep, dark bruises under his eyes match her own. Her eyes feel too dry. Mary's next inhale rattles in her chest and she brushes his hair away from his forehead, strokes a shaking thumb over his sharp cheekbone.

Mary feels messy, like her insides have gone through a blender. Anger lingers just behind her ribs and she hates him; _Joseph_. Mary’s husband, Robert’s lover. She looks at the two of them and she looks at how ruined they are. How even in this bed, wrapped around each other, it's like trying to fit their jagged pieces together like a fucked up jigsaw puzzle.

Mary’s swallows around the lump in her throat. She presses a kiss to Robert’s forehead, and swears – silently, in the soft morning light filtering through Robert’s blinds – that she will never leave him. They are the same, carved out and ruined by the same man, a man they both once loved.

Sleep doesn’t come for her, and Mary doesn’t expect it. She stays, wrapped around Robert tightly, as if to hold them both together for one more day. She stays.

**Author's Note:**

> thank y'all for reading this mess hmu if u want more of this series–


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